User sensing system and method for low power voice command activation in wireless communication systems

ABSTRACT

A method of activating voice control on a wireless device includes sampling signals from a plurality of sensors on the device, determining if the device is in a hands-on state by a user on the basis of the signal sampling, and enabling a voice activated detection (VAD) application on the device on the basis of the determination. A voice controlled apparatus in a wireless device includes a plurality of sensors arranged on the device, a microphone, a controller to sample signals from one or more of the plurality of sensors, a processor coupled to the controller, and a voice activated detection (VAD) application running on the processor coupled to the controller and the microphone.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/826,840, filed on Mar. 14, 2013, and entitled, “USER SENSING SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR LOW POWER VOICE COMMAND ACTIVATION IN WIRELESSCOMMUNICATION SYSTEM,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communicationsystems. More specifically the present disclosure relates to methods andapparatus for minimizing power consumption in voice activated control bysensing user contact to activate voice control affected systems.

2. Background

Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful aswell as more capable. Increasingly users rely on wireless communicationdevices for mobile phone use as well as email and Internet access. Atthe same time, devices have become smaller in size. Devices such ascellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptopcomputers, and other similar devices provide reliable service withexpanded coverage areas. Such devices may be referred to as mobilestations, stations, access terminals, user terminals, subscriber units,user equipments, and similar terms.

A wireless communication system may support communication for multiplewireless communication devices at the same time. In use, a wirelesscommunication device may communicate with one or more base stations bytransmissions on the uplink and downlink. Base stations may be referredto as access points, Node Bs, or other similar terms. The uplink orreverse link refers to the communication link from the wirelesscommunication device to the base station, while the downlink or forwardlink refers to the communication from the base station to the wirelesscommunication devices.

Wireless communication systems may be multiple access systems capable ofsupporting communication with multiple users by sharing the availablesystem resources, such as bandwidth and transmit power. Examples of suchmultiple access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA)systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA) systems, wideband code division multipleaccess (WCDMA) systems, global system for mobile (GSM) communicationsystems, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) systems, andorthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.

Minimizing the power consumption of a mobile communication device ishighly desirable. Voice activation and command is a feature withincreasing popularity on mobile devices. Conventionally, at least partof the voice detection system may be running all the time. To conservebattery on a mobile device, it is desirable to turn off mobile devicefunctions as much as possible. Existing solutions include manuallypressing the power button, where a voice activation detection (VAD)module is running all the time, and a wake-up audio subsystem (LPASS)and application processor (AP) become active when needed.

There is a need, therefore, for an approach to activation of a voicecontrol process that is disabled to conserve power when not needed, andactivated with appropriate detection means when required.

SUMMARY

A method of activating voice controlled command on a device includessampling signals from a plurality of touch sensors on the device,determining if the device is in a hands-on state by a user on the basisof the signal sampling, and enabling a voice activated detection (VAD)application on the device on the basis of the determination.

In an embodiment, a method of activating voice controlled command on adevice includes sampling signals from a plurality of touch sensors onthe device, determining if the device is in a hands-on state by a useron the basis of the signal sampling, and enabling a voice activateddetection (VAD) application on the device on the basis of thedetermination.

In an embodiment, a voice command control apparatus included in a deviceincludes a plurality of touch sensors arranged on one or more surfacesof the device, a microphone arranged on the device, a controller coupledto the sensors to sample signals from one or more of the plurality ofsensors, a processor comprising an audio processor coupled to thecontroller, and a voice activated detection (VAD) application running onthe processor coupled to the controller and the microphone.

In an embodiment, a voice command control apparatus included in a deviceincludes a plurality of sensing means arranged on one or more surfacesof the device, a sound detection means arranged on the device, acontrolling means coupled to the sensing means to sample signals fromone or more of the plurality of sensing means, a processing meanscoupled to the controlling means, and a voice activated detection (VAD)means operable on the processing means responsive to the controllingmeans and the sound detection means.

In an embodiment, a voice command control apparatus included in a deviceincludes means for sampling signals from a plurality of touch sensors onone or more surfaces of the device, means for determining if the deviceis in a hands-on state by a user on the basis of the signal sampling,and means for enabling a voice activated detection (VAD) application onthe device on the basis of the determination.

In an embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable media includinginstructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor toperform the method of activating voice controlled command on a device,including sampling signals from a plurality of touch sensors on one ormore surfaces of the device, determining if the device is in a hands-onstate by a user on the basis of the signal sampling, and enabling avoice activated detection (VAD) application on the device on the basisof the determination.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one configuration of a wireless communication system,in accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example of electroniccomponents capable of transmitting in accordance with certainembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 3A illustrates a wireless communication device having contactsensors at various locations, in accordance with an embodiment of thedisclosure.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a sensor,sensor controller, microphone and processor, in accordance with anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method of voice detection and control, inaccordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects are now described with reference to the drawings. In thefollowing description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofone or more aspects. It may be evident, however, that such aspect(s) maybe practiced without these specific details.

As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system”and the like are intended to include a computer-related entity, such as,but not limited to hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware andsoftware, software, or software in execution. For example, a componentmay be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, aprocessor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a programand/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application runningon a computing device and the computing device can be a component. Oneor more components can reside within a process and/or thread ofexecution and a component may be localized on one computer and/ordistributed between two or more computers. In addition, these componentscan execute from various computer readable media having various datastructures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way oflocal and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal havingone or more data packets, such as data from one component interactingwith another component in a local system, distributed system, and/oracross a network such as the Internet with other systems by way of thesignal.

As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety ofactions and therefore, “determining” can include calculating, computing,processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in atable, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like.Also, “determining” can include resolving, selecting choosing,establishing, and the like.

The phrase “based on” does not mean “based only on,” unless expresslyspecified otherwise. In other words, the phrase “based on” describesboth “based only on” and “based at least on.”

Moreover, the term “or” is intended to man an inclusive “or” rather thanan exclusive “or.” That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear fromthe context, the phrase “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any ofthe natural inclusive permutations. That is, the phrase “X employs A orB” is satisfied by any of the following instances: X employs A; Xemploys B; or X employs both A and B. In addition, the articles “a” and“an” as used in this application and the appended claims shouldgenerally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwiseor clear from the context to be directed to a singular form.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the present disclosure may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core or any other suchconfiguration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with thepresent disclosure may be embodied directly in hardware, in a softwaremodule executed by a processor or in a combination of the two. Asoftware module may reside in any form of storage medium that is knownin the art. Some examples of storage media that may be used include RAMmemory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory,registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, and so forth. Asoftware module may comprise a single instruction, or many instructions,and may be distributed over several different code segments, amongdifferent programs and across multiple storage media. A storage mediummay be coupled to a processor such that the processor can readinformation from, and write information to, the storage medium. In thealternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor.

The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions forachieving the described method. The method steps and/or actions may beinterchanged with one another without departing from the scope of theclaims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions isspecified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may bemodified without departing from the scope of the claims.

The functions described may be implemented in hardware, software,firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, thefunctions may be stored as one or more instructions on acomputer-readable medium. A computer-readable medium may be anyavailable medium that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example,and not limitation, a computer-readable medium may comprise RAM, ROM,EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used tocarry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or datastructures and that can be accessed by a computer. As used herein, diskand disc, includes compact disk (CD), laser disk, optical disc, digitalversatile disk (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray® disc, where disksusually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce dataoptically with lasers.

Software or instructions may also be transmitted over a transmissionmedium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website,server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologiessuch as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiberoptic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such asinfrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition oftransmission medium.

Further, it should be appreciated that modules and/or other appropriatemeans for performing the methods and techniques described herein can bedownloaded and/or otherwise obtained by a mobile device and/or basestation as applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to aserver to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the methodsdescribed herein. Alternatively, various methods described herein can beprovided via a storage means (e.g., random access memory (RAM), readonly memory (ROM), a physical storage medium such as a compact disc (CD)or floppy disk, etc.), such that a mobile device and/or base station canobtain the various methods upon coupling or providing the storage meansto the device. Moreover, any other suitable technique for providing themethods and techniques described herein to a device can be utilized.

Furthermore, various aspects are described herein in connection with aterminal, which may be a wired terminal or a wireless terminal Aterminal may also be called a system, device, subscriber unit,subscriber station, mobile station, mobile, mobile device, remotestation, remote terminal, access terminal, user terminal, communicationdevice, user agent, user device, or user equipment (UE). A wirelessterminal may be a cellular telephone, a satellite phone, a cordlesstelephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless localloop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handhelddevice having wireless connection capability, a computing device, orother processing devices connected to a wireless modem. Moreover,various aspects are described herein in connection with a base station.A base station may be utilized for communicating with wirelessterminal(s) and may also be referred to as an access point, a Node B, orsome other terminology.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunication networks such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, FrequencyDivision Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA)networks, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks, etc. The terms“networks” and “systems” are often used interchangeably. A CDMA networkmay implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess (UTRA), CDMA2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA).CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and technology such as Global System forMobile Communication (GSM).

An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA(E-UTRA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDAM®, etc. UTRA, E-UTRA, andGSM are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). LongTerm Evolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA. UTRA,E-UTRA, GSM, UMTS, and LTE are described in documents from anorganization named “3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP).CDMA2000 is described in documents from an organization named “3^(rd)Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). These various radiotechnologies and standards are known in the art. For clarity, certainaspects of the techniques are described below for LTE, and LTEterminology is used in much of the description below. It should be notedthat the LTE terminology is used by way of illustration and the scope ofthe disclosure is not limited to LTE. Rather, the techniques describedherein may be utilized in various application involving wirelesstransmissions, such as personal area networks (PANs), body area networks(BANs), location, Bluetooth, GPS, UWB, RFID, and the like. Further, thetechniques may also be utilized in wired systems, such as cable modems,fiber-based systems, and the like.

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), whichutilizes single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization hassimilar performance and essentially the same overall complexity as thoseof an OFDMA system. SC-FDMA signal may have lower peak-to-average powerration (PAPR) because of its inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMAmay be used in the uplink communications where the lower PAPR greatlybenefits the mobile terminal in terms of transmit power efficiency.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an LTE network architecture 100. TheLTE network architecture 100 may be referred to as an Evolved PacketSystem (EPS) 100. The EPS 100 may include one or more user equipment(UE) 102, an Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)104, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 110, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS)120, and an Operator's Internet Protocol (IP) Services 122. The EPS mayinterconnect with other access networks, but for simplicity thoseentities/interfaces are not shown. As shown, the EPS providespacket-switched services, however, as those skilled in the art willreadily appreciate, the various concepts presented throughout thisdisclosure may be extended to networks providing circuit-switchedservices.

The E-UTRAN may include the evolved Node B (eNB) 106 and other eNBs 108.The eNB 106 provides user and control planes protocol terminationstoward the UE 102. The eNB 106 may be connected to the other eNBs 108via a backhaul (e.g., an X2 interface, the interface between eNBs. Theinterface is mainly used to support active mode User Equipment (UE)mobility. Technical Specification ETSI TS 136 420 describes the X2Interface).

The eNB 106 may also be referred to as a base station, a basetransceiver station, a radio base station, a radio transceiver, atransceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set(ESS), or some other suitable terminology. The eNB 106 may provide anaccess point to the EPC 110 for a UE 102. Examples of UEs 102 include acellular phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP)phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio,a global positioning system, a multimedia device, a video device, adigital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, atablet, or any other similar functioning device. The UE 102 may also bereferred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station, asubscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, aremote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wirelesscommunications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, anaccess terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remoteterminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or someother suitable terminology.

The eNB 106 may be connected to the EPC 110. The EPC 110 may include aMobility Management Entity (MME) 112, other MMEs 114, a Serving Gateway116, a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) Gateway 124, aBroadcast Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) 126, and a Packet DataNetwork (PDN) Gateway 118. The MME 112 may serve as the control nodethat processes the signaling between the UE 102 and the EPC 110.Generally, the MME 112 may provide bearer and connection management. Alluser IP packets may be transferred through the Serving Gateway 116,which itself may be connected to the PDN Gateway 118. The PDN Gateway118 may provide UE IP address allocation as well as other functions. ThePDN Gateway 118 may be connected to the Operator's IP Services 122. TheOperator's IP Services 122 may include the Internet, an intranet, an IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS), and a PS Streaming Service (PSS). The BM-SC126 is the source of MBMS traffic. The MBMS Gateway 124 distributes theMBMS traffic to the eNBs 106, 108.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an access network 200 inan LTE network architecture. In this example, the access network 200 maybe divided into a number of cellular regions (cells) 202. One or morelower power class eNBs 208 may have cellular regions 210 that overlapwith one or more of the cells 202. The lower power class eNB 208 may bea femto cell (e.g., home eNB (HeNB)), pico cell, micro cell, or remoteradio head (RRH). The macro eNBs 204 may each be assigned to arespective cell 202 and may be configured to provide an access point tothe EPC 110 for all the UEs 206 in the cells 202. There is nocentralized controller in this example of an access network 200, but acentralized controller may be used in alternative configurations. TheeNBs 204 may be responsible for all radio related functions includingradio bearer control, admission control, mobility control, scheduling,security, and connectivity to the serving gateway 116.

The modulation and multiple access scheme employed by the access network200 may vary according to the particular telecommunications standardbeing deployed. For example, in LTE applications, OFDM is used on the DLand SC-FDMA is used on the UL to support both frequency divisionduplexing (FDD) and time division duplexing (TDD). As those skilled inthe art will readily appreciate from the detailed description to follow,the various concepts presented herein are well suited for LTEapplications. However, these concepts may be readily extended to othertelecommunication standards employing other modulation and multipleaccess techniques. By way of example, these concepts may be extended toEvolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB). EV-DOand UMB are air interface standards promulgated by the 3rd GenerationPartnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family ofstandards and employs CDMA to provide broadband Internet access tomobile stations. These concepts may also be extended to UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) employing Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) andother variants of CDMA, such as TD-SCDMA; Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) employing TDMA; and Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, and Flash-OFDMemploying OFDMA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE and GSM are described indocuments from the 3GPP organization. CDMA2000 and UMB are described indocuments from the 3GPP2 organization. The actual wireless communicationstandard and the multiple access technology employed will depend on thespecific application and the overall design constraints imposed on thesystem.

The eNBs 204 may have multiple antennas supporting MIMO technology. Theuse of MIMO technology may enable the eNBs 204 to exploit the spatialdomain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmitdiversity. Spatial multiplexing may be used to transmit differentstreams of data simultaneously on the same frequency. The data steamsmay be transmitted to a single UE 206 to increase the data rate, ortransmitted to multiple UEs 206 to increase the overall system capacity.This may be achieved by spatially precoding each data stream (i.e.,applying a scaling of an amplitude and a phase) and then transmittingeach spatially precoded stream through multiple transmit antennas on theDL. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE(s) 206 withdifferent spatial signatures, which enables each of the UE(s) 206 torecover the one or more data streams destined for that UE 206. On theUL, each UE 206 transmits a spatially precoded data stream, whichenables the eNB 204 to identify the source of each spatially precodeddata stream.

The power required by a UE 206 for all such UL and DL activities may bea significant component of the total power draining a battery or otherpower source, where the UE 206 is mobile and not readily connected toexternal power. A means for conserving power to prolong operability maybe highly advantageous.

Power control enables an improved conservation of battery power toprolong UE operability between recharges. There is a need therefore toreduce power consumption by initiating user controlled processes such asvoice command only when the status of selected sensors warrants a needfor additional processes.

Contact sensing, such as touch sensing, may be used to activateprocesses such as voice detection and implementation of voice commandsin various communication devices. Such devices may include wirelessmobile devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers and the like.Voice command activation may be implemented when the device is portableand relies on battery power. Examples of voice command include voicedialing by speaking a phone number or address book entry into amicrophone, which is recognized to initiate a call, or verbal inquiry toa smart phone to query a database at a remote server.

In an embodiment, sensors may be mounted on two or more edges of thedevice to detect a user's hand contact with the device as illustrated inFIG. 3A. The sensors may be capacitive, resistive, thermoelectric,piezoelectric sensor, temperature gradient sensors, or the like. Forexample, a piezoelectric sensor may generate a transient voltage signalwhen compressed, and the voltage may be detected by a sampling circuitto initiate other processes that require power only when in use. Othertypes of sensors may rely on different forms of electric or magneticstimulus produced by contact, but the objective is typically similar,e.g., to induce a voltage that may be detected to initiate a process.When contact is detected on at least two edges/surfaces it may be termed“hand-on”; otherwise it is “hands-off.” For example, if a smart phonerests in isolation on a single side, the signals generated may beinterpreted as not being gripped in a “hands on” configuration by theuser. However, detection need not be limited to signals from at leasttwo edges and or surfaces, and a single contact may be sufficient.

In an embodiment, the sensor(s) may be periodically sampled, preferablyat a low duty cycle (e.g., less than 50%, but more preferably, as low as1% and even less, but greater than 0%). The sensor may be sampled for ashort time interval to detect a user presence, i.e., when the user isholding the device, and use is determined by comparison of a sensorsignal level to a threshold signal level. If the sensor signal satisfiesthe threshold minimum requirement, an action may be taken to activateone or more processes. A controller may provide the current and voltagesto operate the one or more sensors. The controller may power circuitryadapted to detect the sensor signal, compare the sensor signal level tothe threshold signal level and issue an output signal to initiate one ormore application processes, one of which may be voice detection. Voicedetection may be accomplished through a microphone. Other processes mayfurther include voice recognition, analysis and activation of otherprocesses (such as opening and running applications stored on thedevice) on the basis of the voice command issued after voice detectionis initiated.

In an embodiment, the controller may be a single processor adapted tocontrol several, or all, functions and processes of the wirelesscommunication device, including communications. In an embodiment, thecontroller may be a low level control device with minimal functionality,dedicated to activating and interrogating the sensors and correspondingoperable circuitry at a low duty cycle, while leaving the sensorsdormant, i.e., without power or in a low-power state, at other times.The controller may be coupled to a main processor or several otherprocessors, one or more of which may be tasked with initiating variousprocesses, including, but not limited to, voice detection, voice patternrecognition and command generation of various applications on the basisof the voice pattern recognition. Thus, the controller, because of itslow level of functionality and operating requirements, e.g., operatingthe sensors, measuring and comparing the sensor signal levels generatedtherefrom, may require less power than a higher level processor which,because of its higher computational requirements and capabilities, mayconsume more energy. Thus, the controller is adapted to determine, at alow duty cycle, and a lower level of instantaneous and/or average power,whether to activate processes requiring more processor powerconsumption.

As shown in FIG. 3A, a smart phone assembly 300 incorporating sensors310 may be located, for example, along the edges of a mobile device 320,such as a smart phone, (and may include locations at the top or bottom,as well, not shown). Sensors 310 that may be adapted to detect the“hands-on” state may include piezoelectric, pyroelectric, capacitive,thermoelectric, piezoresistive sensing elements, or the like.

For example, a piezoresistive sensor may include a Wheatstone bridge,which is well known in the art of pressure sensing. One resistor in thebridge is a membrane resistor, wherein the value of resistance issensitive to pressure or deformation of the membrane, and a “bridge”resistor exhibits substantially little or no current flow when the otherresistors are balanced” in resistance value. A change in the sensingresistor causes a current across a bridge resistor, where the voltagedrop induced is a measure of pressure on the resistor membrane.Circuitry coupled to the Wheatstone bridge to detect contact pressure onmembrane resistor may be powered at a low duty cycle, i.e., the circuitmay be unpowered most of the time, thus drawing no current. Similarly, athermoresistive Wheatstone bridge may be used to sense a change inresistance when thermal contact from the user's finger changes thesensing element's resistance.

Alternatively, a piezoelectric sensor may include a piezoelectrictransducer element that may generate a voltage impulse when contacted incompression by a user handling the mobile device 320. The voltageimpulse (which may be amplified) may be detected to power up circuitryfor voice detection and voice activated control. In the same spirit, avariety of sensing modalities may be combined with appropriate circuitryand operated in a low duty cycle mode to detect the “hands on” or “handsoff” state of the mobile device to conserve operational power.

When the sensors 310 detect a user in “hands on” contact with the mobiledevice 320, one or more applications may be activated that areresponsive to voice commands received via a microphone 350.

Referring to FIG. 3B, when a user presence is detected by the sensors310, processes responsive to voice commands detected by the microphone350 may be initiated by a controller 330. Controller 330 may be coupledto the sensors 310 and the microphone 350 to initiate an application forvoice activation detection and interpretation (VAD) running on aprocessor 340 that interprets voice commands on the basis of signalsreceived from the controller 330. Alternatively, the processor 340,which may comprise an audio processor, may be coupled to acommunications interface, which may be wireless, for accessing a remoteserver adapted to interprets voice commands and provide responseinstruction back to the mobile device 320.

The controller 330 may sample the sensors 310 on a periodic orintermittent basis to determine if a “hands-on” condition exists, i.e.,when the sensors 310 are contacted by the user. Sampling duty cycles,during which power may be applied to operate the sensors 310 andassociated circuitry, may typically vary from 50% to less than 1%, butgreater than 0%. Applications activated to run on the processor 340 mayconnect the device 320 to the cloud, based on the interpretation of thevoice command, if access to remote resources is sought. The voiceactivated detection (VAD) process may be disabled/halted when processedcommands result in completed function, and/or when the device 320 issampled and found in a “hands-off” state by the controller 330.

In an embodiment, FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 of voice detection andcontrol. The method 400 includes sampling signals (process block 410)from one or more touch sensors on a device 320. It is then determined ifthe device is in a “hands-on” condition on the basis of the signals(decision block 420). If the signals indicate a “hands-on” state of thedevice 320, a voice activated detection application is then enabled(process block 430). Otherwise, the method continues by returning toprocess block 410 to continue to sampling signals from the sensors 310if the device 320 is in a “hands-off” state, where an adaptive (i.e.,variable) delay may be inserted between samplings (process block 490).If a voice is detected (decision block 440), the method 400 continues byenabling an audio processor to interpret voice commands (process block450). Otherwise, the method continues to sample the sensor 310 byreturning to process block 410 via the adaptive delay process block 490.If the processor 340 is enabled in decision block 450, it may optionallybe enabled to communicate (process block 460) with a remote cloudserver, if required, to obtain (process block 470) valid commands on thebasis of the interpreted voice command and forward to the application onthe user device 320. The operation of VAD, and communication with thecloud server by processor 340 may cease or halt (process block 480) whenat least one condition of no voice is detected after a delay time, andthe device is found in a “hands-off” condition. Following the steps ofdecision blocks 420, 440, and process blocks 460 and 480, the methodproceeds by returning to process block 410 to sample the sensors, wherean adaptive delay may be inserted to determine the effective duty cycleof the sensor sampling rate. Alternatively, the application on the userdevice 320 may generate command instructions internally, withoutconnecting to the cloud-based server, and execute instructions directlywithin the application located on the processor 340, and proceed fromprocess block 450 to process block 480.

To conserve battery power in a mobile device such as a smart phone, theduty cycle may preferably be 50% or less. More preferably, the dutycycle may be greater than 0% and less than 10% to further reduce powerconsumption requirements as much as desired, for the sampling and voiceactivation method 400, as shown, for example, in FIG. 4. The duty cyclemay be selected to balance between power savings and adequate samplingto detect “hands on.” When there is no “hands-on” contact with thesensors for a protracted period, the adaptive delay may be increased tocorrespond to extended periods of inactive use of the smart phone.

Determining the “hands-on” state of the mobile device 320 may proceed invarious ways. For example, when sampled, the sensor signal may be avoltage output level that may be compared to a threshold level, set as areference point at a value to distinguish a signal from noise, incircuitry, e.g., using operational amplifiers as comparators. The sensedsignal must match or exceed the reference in order to enable the audioprocessor and interpret the commands. Capacitance based sensors maydetect a change in the electrostatic field due to contact with the usersbody (e.g., fingertip), which is an electrical conductor, which isdetected as a change in capacitance. Again, the change in capacitancemay be translated by circuitry to produce a signal (e.g., as an analogvoltage or digital value) that distinguishes the sensed signal due touser contact from a background level of an untouched sensor. Thecombination of a “hands-on” state and voice detection provides a logicalcondition to activate circuits, affected software, including but notlimited to the VAD, and one or more processors 340 from a low power(idle) state or off state to an on state, thereby enabling audioprocessing and spoken command interpretation and (optional) cloudcommunication to obtain commands.

It may be appreciated that using a sensor 310 may be an easier means ofestablishing a “hands-on” state to enable voice detection than pressinga power button to activate voice detection. There is no need to maintainany part of the audio and/or A/D circuitry in an operational state,which consumes power, when no voice signal is detected. The consequenceis a savings in battery power and extension of device operationallifetime on a single charge.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in theprocesses disclosed is an illustration of exemplary approaches. Basedupon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order orhierarchy of steps in the processes may be rearranged. The accompanyingmethod claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order,and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchypresented.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the various aspects described herein. Variousmodifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied toother aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theaspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistentwith the language claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. All structural andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects describedthroughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known tothose of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein byreference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover,nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the publicregardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in theclaims. No claim element is to be construed as a means plus functionunless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.”

It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the preciseconfiguration and components illustrated above. Various modifications,changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation anddetails of the systems, methods, and apparatus described herein withoutdeparting from the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A voice controlled apparatus included in awireless device, comprising: a processor; a plurality of sensors locatedalong one or more edges of the wireless device, the plurality of sensorsconfigured to facilitate sampling one or more signals indicative ofwhether the wireless device is in a hands-on state by a user; amicrophone configured to receive voice commands from the user; and acontroller coupled to the plurality of sensors, the microphone, and theprocessor, the controller configured to initiate, via the processor, avoice activated detection (VAD) application that interprets voicecommands on the basis of the one or more signals.
 2. The voicecontrolled apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a communicationsinterface coupled the processor, the communications interface configuredto access a remote server adapted to interpret voice commands andprovide response instructions to the wireless device.
 3. The voicecontrolled apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is an audioprocessor.
 4. The voice controlled apparatus of claim 1, wherein theplurality of sensors comprises at least one of piezoelectric sensors,pyroelectric sensors, capacitive sensors, thermoelectric sensors, orpiezoresistive sensors.
 5. The voice controlled apparatus of claim 4,wherein the piezoresistive sensors may include a Wheatstone bridge fordetecting contact pressure, by an extremity of the user, on the sensors.6. The voice controlled apparatus of claim 1, further comprising aplurality of sensors located at the top or bottom of the wirelessdevice.
 7. The voice controlled apparatus of claim 1, wherein thecontroller compares a level of the sampled signals to a threshold level,and activates the hands-on state when the sampled signals equal orexceed the threshold level.
 8. The voice controlled apparatus of claim1, wherein the controller periodically activates at least one of theplurality of the sensors at a duty cycle for sampling output signals. 9.The voice controlled apparatus of claim 1, wherein the duty cycle isless than 50% and greater than 0%.
 10. The voice controlled apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to detect avoltage impulse when contacted in compression by an extremity of theuser.